5 Must Read Color Tips!

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Spend three days in gorgeous Long Beach, Calif. checking out the coolest products, brands and techniques in pro beauty? Sign us up! The International Salon & Spa Expo was packed with awesome tips and ideas—here are five of our faves!

Speed Up Your Blonding!Blonding is a serious moneymaker, but it also takes a lot of time. PRAVANA’sBlonde Wandhelps you speed up your processing time so you can get more clients in your chair! We got the lowdown on how to use this new tool, plus a couple tips to make sure you have success:

Always use the haircolor at the nape of the neck to determine your client’s natural level.

Don’t fold your foils when using the Blonde Wand!

You can bend the corners of your foil together to keep the pieces from slipping.

Use a thin slice—you should be able to see through it—when using the Blonde Wand.

Color Melting 101Color melts are HUGE and the trend isn’t going anywhere. We talked to MatrixArtistic Director Dan Csicsai and Breck Csicsai, Matrix Runway Team artist, about the factors that matter most in your melts. Here’s what they said are the crucial components:

Blending: This is the KEY to a great color melt.

Foils: Don’t fold them! You might get color creasing.

Clean work station: “Don’t be the messy artist!” Dan said. A clean work station translates to a clean eye—so keep it organized!

A dry brush: Breck suggests keeping a dry brush on hand to blend the colors. Apply one color with one brush, another color with another brush, and use the dry brush to blend so you aren’t mixing the colors up in their bowls.

An organized pattern: You need a plan before you start applying color. Sketch it out, write it down—whatever you need to do.

Make Your Own Haircolor!You’ve been there—a client comes in and wants a fashion color that you don’t have. This cool new collection from Malibu C is your solution! The Concentr8 Colour Collection is pure powder color pigment in red, blue and yellow. Mix your desired shade, add to a mixer (such as Malibu C’s Illumin8, Rehabilit8 or Rehydr8) and BOOM—your perfect custom color! Check out a close-up look at how it works! Bonus: You’ll feel like a mad scientist!

High-Impact Color With Minimal WorkPops of blonde against a brown base are hot, hot, hot, but balayage and ombré are time-consuming processes. This technique from Vernon Fuente, L’anza Healing HaircareAdvanced Healing Artist, can be done with half a head of foils and makes a huge impact. Here’s what you do: Take a big weave, backcomb lightly to create a little distance, and apply your lightener from the mids to ends. “If you brought the color to the scalp, you’d have stripes,” Vernon said. “But if you use this technique, you get softness. And you can do a whole application with less than 10 foils. Charge for half a head of highlights—it’s high-impact color with minimal work.”

A Different Kind Of Color ServiceWanna do color without actually applying color? You totally can! We picked up this tip at the Hairtalk booth—give her the color she wants without damage and the long processing time. Check it out!